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Shockeroos on the official Emmy ballot: Past 'Lost' winner Terry O'Quinn is lost!

June 5, 2009 | 10:53
pm

When the Emmy ballot was posted live tonight at the TV academy's website (here, here, here and here), there were lots of shocking placements and omissions of contenders.

Last year Gold Derby's posters made major news when we noticed that 2007's best supporting drama actress Katherine Heigl ("Grey's Anatomy") wasn't listed. Now we've spotted another surprising omission: the chap who won the equivalent Emmy Award for best supporting drama actor the same year Heigl prevailed. Our poster "742" notices that "Lost" star Terry O'Quinn is truly lost on the ballot now.

Did O'Quinn, like Heigl, choose not to enter the competition or was his name accidentally not submitted? Believe it or not, many stars often forget to submit their names for competition. The most famous case involved Tim Allen during the heyday of "Home Improvement" in the 1990s. When he was outted by the media for failing to submit his entry forms, he was so humiliated by the public hubbub that followed that he turned his Emmy candidacy the next year into a comic stunt. He had his paperwork delivered to the TV academy's headquarters in North Hollywood by the University of Southern California marching band.

Gold Derby will try to get an official explanation for O'Quinn's omission from the actor, "Lost" producers or ABC executives over the weekend, but we may not hear back officially from an informed source until Monday.

Note that many shows and stars may not be entered into this year's Emmy derby because of the cost involved. While it's free to enter the other three showbiz peer-group awards (Oscar, Grammy, Tony), Emmy officials charge entry fees to offset the high cost of the award's careful judging process that involves mass duplication of DVDs and their distribution to thousands of voters.

Below are many interesting observations about the Emmy ballot made by our forum posters. See the full forum thread here.

Atypical: "Terry O'Quinn could have seriously been in the running for 'The Life & Death of Jeremy Bentham.' Wow. That just opened up a huge door for another contender, like Aaron Paul or Josh Holloway. Diablo Cody didn't submit the pilot episode of "United States of Tara" to comedy writing. Huge mistake."

Boomer: "Jason Segel NOT submitted for 'How I Met Your Mother' (very surprising given his recent film success). 'Saturday Night Live' got around the lack of (a category for best) variety performance and submitted Justin Timberlake and Tina Fey in the comedy guest acting categories (no other hosts from this season, believe it or not). Tracey Ullman and the 'Little Britain' guys also got around the variety performance problem by submitting in the comedy supporting categories (even though they are the stars of their shows).

"All of the original 'E.R.' cast members are submitted as guest stars (even though they were billed in the opening credits and not as guest stars). Tyler James Williams and Jim Belushi were not submitted for their shows.

Robert "Rob L" Licuria: "Hector Elizondo from 'Monk' has moved into supporting. He's in with a shot. Matt Lucas has submitted himself for 'Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire' and NOT 'Little Britain USA.' Crazy! Matt Walliams is submitted for 'Little Britain USA.'

"None of the actors from ABC's Diamonds mini-sereis have been submitted, such as Judy Davis and Derek Jacobi, who would be frontrunners if they were submitted. In guest actor comedy, of the higher-profile contenders, the following have been left off the list:

"'Battlestar Galactica' submitted 4 in writing (Hub, Daybreak 2, Revelations, Blood on the Scales) and 2 in directing (Daybreak 2, Islanded in a Stream of Stars). So, unless there's a lot of support for the finale, we likely wont see it in either category, which is a huge shame. Last 2 years they were smart. What happened?"

742: "LOL, 'CSI' and 'CSI: NY' are up for drama series consideration, but not 'CSI: Miami.' Of course, this isn't all that significant, except to suggest that maybe even the network doesn't think it was worth submitting."

MicheBel: "So, let me get this straight. Kevin Connolly and Adrien Grenier are submitted for best actor, but Jeremy Piven isn't?"

Iskolar: "I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that 'The Office' submitted 12 each for writing and directing. Meanwhile, 'Desperate Housewives' who always submits gazillion submitted their two best episodes of the season. but who cares? They won't get nommed anyway.

"Chace Crawford submitting lead for 'Gossip Girl.' LOL. Sorry, can't help it. Also Leighton Meester for lead. This cast is a riot. Miley Cyrus for comedy lead actress again. HAHAHAHAHA."

Noble: "The really surprising thing I noticed is that Emmy savvy David E. Kelley hasn't submitted anything for writing Boston Legal. With a 2 hour series final and a field without many pilots this emmy favourite series would have stood a very good chance of getting its first writing nod."

LonePirate: "There's plenty of excess in the Writing category. 'The Office' has 12 submissions; 'Burn Notice' has 7; 'CSI' has 11; 'Friday Nights Lights' has 7, 'Leverage' has 7 and '24' has 7. There's also plenty of excess in directing. The Office' has 12 submissions; '30 Rock' has 10; 'Breaking Bad' has 8; 'Burn Notice' has 7; 'In Treatment' has 9 and 'Leverage' has 7."

rp557: "I haven't been watching 'My Name is Earl' this season, so I had no idea they called one of their episodes 'Vote For This and I Promise to Do Something Crazy at the Emmys.' I guess this is their last-ditch effort to get back into writing."